The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-05-20
HOW THREAD is MADE.
What Cotton Goes Through Before II
Reaches the Needle.

What Cotton Goes Through Before 1t
Reaches the Needle.
Few people ever stop to think of the
twistings and turnings and the various
processes that cotton fiber goes through
after it is taken from the pod before it
is wound up on spool and ready for
the housewives needle. The whole
story is told, however, in a small space
in one of the cases in the hall in the
National Museum given up to an exhi-
bition of textile fabrics. This is one
of the many object lessons in the mu
scum, which, combined, are intended
to tell the story of man as he exists
on the earth. First is shown a speci-
men of cotton in the pod just as it is
picked, without having the seeds re-
moved. Next is shown "a specimen of
the same cotton after it has been
ginned and the black seeds have been
removed.
The Sea Island cotton is used
for thread on account of the
length of the fiber. A sample of the
sacking in which the cotton is baled is
also shown. Then the cotton is sup
posed to have been baled and shipped
to the thread factory. Here the first
thing that is done with the cotton is to
subject it to the ''picker" process, by
which the cotton from several bales is
mixed to secure uniformity. During
the picker process much waste in the
form of dust, dirt and short fibers are
separated from the good fibers by the
picker. Next the ''picked" cotton is
wound on a machine in sheets or laps
into a roll. The next process illus
trated by a practical exhibit is the
carding by which the sheets of cotton
are combed or run out into long paral-
lei fibers. The cotton is next seen
drawn through trumpet-shaped open
ing, which cOndenses it into a single
strand or ''sliver." Then eight such
slivers are run together into one, six Of
the strands thus produced are drawn in
to one, and again six of the strands from
the last drawing are combined into
one. Then comes the slubbing or fast
growing" process, which consists of
winding the strand and bObbin. Two
strands are twisted and again wound
on a bobbin. After a number of other
twistings and windings, during which
the strand is gradually reduced in size,
until it begins to assume thread-hke
appearance, two strands of this fine
growing" are run together and twisted,
under considerable tension, on bob
bin that makes seven thousand revolu-
tons a minute. Two of the cords thus
produced is transferred thence to an
other spool, and then three threads of
two cords each are twisted together,
forming six-cOrd thread.
One who has followed the process
sees the cotton gradually transformed
from wide band or sheet of loose cot
ton to a compact thread that win pass
through the eye of a needle. The six
cord thread is at last taken from bob
bin and reeled into a skein, in which
form it is bleached or dyed. Then it
is wound back into the skein upon
big spool, from which it is supplied to
little white birch spools from which it
is wound in regular courses, and is
then ready for the market The ma
chine that regulates the last winding
measures the number of yards wound
or aach spool. The spools are made
of various sizes to hold from two hun
bred to twelve thousand yards Of
thread. The labels that decorate the
ends of the spools when they are sold
are last put on They are cut and
pasted on by machinery with great
rapidity. - Washington Star.